New Commissioner Rob Manfred, who visited Indians players Tuesday morning, said the situation has convinced him for the need of a worldwide draft. Manfred talked about that and several other subjects Tuesday.

Manfred believes MLB leveled the playing field regarding the amateur draft in the last negotiations with the players association when a slotting system was introduced for the first 10 rounds of the draft.

“It re-established the principal purpose of the draft, in that the weakest team had ...

I’ve been watching a ton of games this spring. (Thanks MLB.TV!) I’ve seen most of these guys multiple times. Although more than a few of them have been impressive, Russell is the guy who impressed me the most. Syndergaard is the guy who left me with the biggest question marks.

Tuesday, March 17, 2015

When the news broke Tuesday that MLB would be getting rid of its paper All-Star ballots starting with the 2015 season, I was momentarily transported to being a 10-year-old kid sitting inside Oakland Coliseum with a pencil in my hand.

Cubs president Theo Epstein countered, “Kris Bryant’s development path has absolutely nothing to do with ownership, period. As with all our baseball decisions, I will determine where Kris begins the 2015 season after consulting with members of our baseball operations staff. Comments from agents, media members and anybody outside our organization will be ignored.”

We’ve all been cognizant of DIPS for ... gosh, it’s been nearly 15 years now. But for whatever reasons, we don’t usually pay nearly as much attention to DIBS. Maybe because there’s not a single baseline for DIBS, as there is for DIPS.

What Jedlovec has done, though, is drill about as deeply into hitters’ performances as possible, and come up with something that’s more useful, more predictive, than even the more sophisticated numbers we usually reference.

Molitor to Nuñez: “Every time I see you hit one in the air, you owe me 20 push-ups.”

How did Nunez go from being Derek Jeter’s heir apparent to fighting for a part-time role on a likely last-place team, while still in his physical prime? On the surface, Nunez’s story might sound like those of countless other disappointing players. Nunez, however, has picked up a habit that no one else has. He’s hooked on homers-in-silos, addicted to easy outs, going through life with a bad batted ball on ...

I’ve railed against government-financing of stadiums for years and years. I learned a long time ago what terrible waste of tax-payer money it is. I would love to see the practice ended. I’ve also learned that, if there is a way for our elected officials to screw up a good idea, they will find it.

MLB is buying used cars, and paying for them and driving them like they’re new. They don’t have much choice, either, as there just aren’t that many pristine models released each year—as Keri and Dr. Fleisig suggest, MLB teams need to find that natural talent from Vermont who doesn’t play year round and hasn’t developed the same kind of injuries if they want to beat the system. Guess how many of those there are each summer? MLB has tried to slow this trend, but that’s mostly a PR ...

Almost all of the Phils are camera fiends and never go to the park without black boxes and films. Eddie Burns and Joe Oeschger get good results from vest-pocket kodaks.
...Jack Ryan of Washington, having been hit so often on the toes by wild pitchers, has rigged up a device in the shape of a half portion of rubber fire hose, which arches over the toe of each shoe. “Let ‘em peg away now—they can’t hurt me,” Jack says.
...Manager Robinson of the Dodgers was ...

Monday, March 16, 2015

No, baseball doesn’t need it. He violated baseball biggest rule. He *agreed* to a lifetime ban. His time is not done. That doesn’t mean he can’t counsel others not to make the same mistake. It doesn’t mean that he can’t do good. It means he can’t do it as part of Major League Baseball.

If we are a forgiving nation, is 25 years not enough punishment? Rose finally seems sincere. With the All-Star game coming up in Cincinnati, what a major moment for Major League Baseball if Rose is back in its ...

“As of right now, we see Cingrani as more of a relief option rather than a starting option,” Price said. “We’re looking at our club and trying to figure out how we’re the best. We brought a bunch of people in that are capable of competing for those jobs, but we don’t have enough innings to give them.”

Major League Baseball commissioner Rob Manfred says he has received a formal request from Pete Rose asking that his lifetime ban be lifted and that he will consider the all-time hits leader’s request “on its merits.”

“I want to make sure I understand all of the details of the Dowd Report and Commissioner [Bart] Giamatti’s decision and the agreement that was ultimately reached,” Manfred said after a meeting with Los Angeles Dodgers players in Arizona on Monday morning. “I ...

You don’t have to be a sabermetrician to know this is going to be a bad team in 2015.They have a catcher who isn’t much of a catcher. A third baseman who can’t really play third base. Their starting pitching looks to be bad, really, really bad. But don’t worry, they are smarter than everyone else.

For now, let’s just say that the D-backs will be, um, fascinating? I can’t go so far as to say they will be good, not when righties Josh Collmenter and Jeremy Hellickson are miscast as the team’s Nos. ...

In September of 2014, there had been 53 Tommy John surgeries since 2012. This includes great or potentially great pitchers like Jose Fernandez, Kris Medlen, Brandon Beachy, Matt Moore, Martin Perez and Tyler Skaggs. Sometimes players come back from Tommy John surgery and are as strong as ever. Some players never recover fully. Some have the surgery multiple times in their career. Some don’t even make it back.